Welcome to economic history. This is an elective course in which we will discuss the historical foundations of the modern economy. This syllabus will provide you with a brief synopsis of the assignments and the material we will cover.
The motivating question in the study of economics, and of economic history more specifically, is “why are some people very rich while other people are very poor?” More fundamentally, we might ask “why have people been so very poor for almost the entirety of human history?” There are no simple answers: the world in which we live is the product of thousands of years of complex interaction between individuals. On one hand, we ask questions like “what was income per capita in the United Kingdom in 1870, measured in 1970 US dollars” and come up with estimates like “$904.”1 On the other, we use economic reasoning to explain why people moved from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture.

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This syllabus was submitted to the Rhodes College Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor.